Pizza on the Grill

My life has been changed forever. That is, my life in terms of pizza consumption. As we enter summer grilling season I’ve heard more and more about cooking pizza’s on the grill. I wasn’t skeptical of the idea, I just wasn’t sure if I could pull it off. Plus, we don’t own a grill. So when we went to Lake Gaston and it was one of our nights to cook, I took on the pizza grilling challenge.

Results? I’m here to tell you that anybody can make this happen and it is so deliciously good. The crust is thin, crispy and flavorful; the ingredients are fresh and simple. The dough came out in interesting shapes (like the picture below where the pizza is long and skinny) which added to the fun of this experiment.

My father-in-law John said that it tasted like slices of pizza he gets on the streets of Italy! I’m not sure if he was being super nice, but I will say this is the best way to make a pizza. Forget the oven, turn on the grill.

tomato, mozzarella, basil

Ingredients
Store bought pizza dough (not pillsbury. You can often find good frozen pizza dough in the freezer section near the breads)
Any pizza ingredient you want! Here are few we tried:

Directions
1. Defrost dough completely and roll out into desired size and shape. Brush one side of dough with olive oil.
2. Prepare all ingredients you intend to use and place in separate bowls so they’re within easy reach.
3. Before heating the grill, grease it a little with some vegetable oil so the dough doesn’t stick. Heat gas grill on high and close the lid for 10 minutes. Turn to medium.
4. Place dough on grill, olive oil side up, and shut lid for 3 minutes. Once dough is golden, flip to other side. Layer desired ingredients on this side and shut lid for another 5-8 minutes or until cheese is melted, ingredients are hot and other side of dough is cooked.
5. Pull pizza off the grill, slice it, serve it and enjoy!

Voila!

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Post-baking thoughts: Once the dough is on the grill everything happens pretty fast which is why it’s important to have all the ingredients sliced, shredded and ready to go.